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Canadian woman denied entry to U.S. because of suicide attempt

Lois Kamenitz was stunned to learn that U.S. border officials were barring her entry. The reason: Years ago, she attempted suicide.

Lois Kamenitz,shown on Jan. 25, 2011, was recently stopped by U.S. officials trying to board a plane to California -- stopped because she tried to commit suicide in 2006. She wants to know how U.S. officials accessed her private medical informatio and why she was refused entry. (RICHARD LAUTENS / TORONTO STAR) | Order this photo

By Isabel TeotonioStaff Reporter

Sat., Jan. 29, 2011

When Lois Kamenitz arrived at Pearson International Airport in November, hoping to board a flight to California, she was stunned to learn that U.S. border officials were barring her entry. The reason: Years ago, she attempted suicide.

The 64 year-old Toronto woman was fingerprinted and photographed. She questioned the U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer about how he accessed her medical records. He said he didn’t. Instead, he knew police had attended her Toronto home in 2006 because she had done “violence to self.”

Kamenitz, who stands just 4-foot-10, was never told exactly why she was prohibited from boarding that flight on Nov. 20. She’s not sure if Americans were worried she would do harm to herself or others, or whether they were concerned she was a threat to national security. She wryly raises her hands, which are disfigured from a severe disabling form of arthritis.

“I was shocked and confused,” Kamenitz said this week at the office of her lawyer, Barry Swadron. He is trying to figure out how the information was disclosed before deciding whether to take legal action.

“Why would Canada disclose health information? I think it’s the political and digital climate we’re living in,” said Kamenitz, a former teacher and librarian who struggles with anxiety and depression. “There’s been a shift in our democracy. Suddenly people have access to our information that impacts on our civil liberties.”

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How and why her personal information was passed to a foreign government is extremely troubling, say advocates for civil rights and the rights of psychiatric patients, who believe Kamenitz’s privacy rights were invaded.

It’s not an isolated incident, says Ryan Fritsch, legal counsel for the Psychiatric Patient Advocate Office. He has heard of about eight similar cases in the past year, all involving non-criminal contact between police and people with mental health issues — records of contact that end up at the Department of Homeland Security.

“These kinds of disclosures and the retention of this kind of information has a chilling effect on persons with mental illness,” said Fritsch, who fears people will think twice before calling 911. “A mental crisis should not be a lifelong sentence for stigma and discrimination.”

As Kamenitz spoke with the customs officer, she recalled the day in 2006 when her partner found her unconscious after overdosing on pills and called 911. Since that day, she had flown to the U.S. without incident on three other occasions.

Still, Kamenitz was told if she wanted to enter the U.S. this time, she had to get medical clearance from a State Department physician, which cost $250. Her family doctor provided medical records and Kamenitz signed a form stating she understood the information would be passed to the U.S. government and had no control over how it would be used.

Kamenitz was cleared and allowed to fly four days later. It cost her and her partner an extra $400 for new tickets. She has no idea if she’ll have to go though the same process the next time she wants to enter the U.S.

Due to privacy laws, U.S. Customs and Border Protection cannot discuss specific cases.

Under U.S. immigration law, applicants for admission must prove they are eligible to enter and overcome more than 60 grounds of inadmissibility, which include health-related issues, prior criminal convictions and security reasons.

Among the health-related reasons for inadmissibility is a foreigner who has a physical or mental disorder and behaviour associated with the disorder that may pose, or has posed, a threat to the property, safety, or welfare of the individual or others.

Kamenitz’s lawyer says what happened to her is “another example of the harm that flows from the draconian procedures and practices that seem to equate mental illness with violence and criminality.”

“How on earth do we expect people who suffer or have once suffered from emotional or psychological illness to be rehabilitated if we continue to put barriers in their way?” Swadron asked.

He suspects Kamenitz’s suicide attempt was entered by Toronto officers into the Canadian Police Information Centre (CPIC), a central police database that also includes non-criminal matters, such as suicide attempts and missing persons.

CPIC is managed by the RCMP and shared with the FBI. Similarly, the FBI’s computerized database is shared with Canadian agencies.

The CPIC system will purge the record of a suicide attempt after a five-year period, unless there are extenuating circumstances requiring it to be kept on record longer.

Police have valid reasons for collecting all types of information, such as suicide attempts, and retaining it for their own records, says Graeme Norton of the Civil Liberties Association.

“But if they put that in the same basket with information that they are sharing broadly and generally with other government agencies, that’s where the problem arises,” said Norton, director of the CCLA’s public safety program.

“I don’t know what the chain of information being passed was here. But I can’t imagine that it happened in such a way that it didn’t involve a Canadian government agency, so it’s very troubling.”

Neither the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, nor the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario could comment on this case because they did not have all the facts related to the case.

However, the office of the federal privacy commissioner has received inquiries in the past related to trouble people have encountered while trying to cross an international border.

“We have not, however, had any that relate specifically to mental health issues as a justification for a denial of entry into the United States,” said Nicole Baer, a spokesperson for the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada.

“There have been no discussions with officials on either side of the border over this particular type of concern.”

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